Rally Pack Color

It could be either color. If you have the original, should be able to determine what color it was.

The only thing I am aware of that would be dated in an original rally-pac would be a date stamp on the back of the tach. To see this, you'll have to disassemble the rally-pac. Of course, the tach could have been replaced.

If the date is consistent with the car, then it might be a good indicator that the rally-pac is the original and then you can observe what the original color was.

Just my thoughts but I would think a factory Rally-Pac would be color keyed to the interior, a dealer or owner added would be black.

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Just my thoughts but I would think a factory Rally-Pac would be color keyed to the interior, a dealer or owner added would be black.

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That is the norm, but when the low profile rally-pac became available, not sure all colors were also available. Have heard a lot of owner claims that their low profile came black. But, like you say, could have been a dealer-install thing.

Many 65 cars built in Dearborn during the first days or weeks of the availability of the "pony interior" had a black wrinkle painted rally pac. Even the more common color interiors such as red were built with a black tach and clock, and this practice continued in at least some instances until at least late April and maybe longer at the Dearborn plant. The black looks strange in cars with colored interiors but that was how Ford did it for a while. Have no idea when this changed, but it was common to have the black rally pac in some or possibly all cars when delivered in the Spring of 65.We are talking about the "low profile rally pac" that came with the Deluxe Interior in this matter.

Edited by - Murf on 01/06/2010 00:03:57

That little blue '65 GT convertible I restored had an original blue rally-pac in it when I bought it. When I took it apart for restoration, the tach was ink-stamped May of 1965 and there was blue paint on the inside. Just one example from Dearborn.

I have a number of original Mustang brochures from 1964 (Mustangs shown with other 1964 Fords) early and late 1965 Mustang only brochures and all of them show black rally pac's both in the High and low profile versions. (each brochure shows the rally pac in a red interior) This would lead me to believe that if you ordered a rally pac it most likely would have been black whether it came from the factory or installed by a dealer. In an original 1966 brochure that I have it shows a color keyed rally pac (in a white interior). So sometime just prior to the 66 change over Ford must have started to color key these units on a standard basis.... I seem to remember that you had to special order a color keyed rally pac in 65 otherwise it was black....but as one gets older the memory isn't as sharp as it use to be, so I could be wrong. This probably doesn't help much other than maybe cause additional confusion and for that I apologize...

Thanks for weighing in on this. Unfortunately, history has proven that new car brochures are not always a good reference to use for answering production detail questions. The brochures would typically be designed and printed months before actual production may have begun. Most of the information would be relatively accurate, but there are always a few things here and there that can be spotted as wrong.

This is a '66 Metuchen Kar ordered new with a rally pac. Standard red int. it came with a black Rally Pac.

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This is a '66 Metuchen Kar ordered new with a rally pac. Standard red int. it came with a black Rally Pac.

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Thanks for sharing. Another exception to the norm... seems par for the course these days!

Just one additional comment.... while doing some more research for my K I was going through the Mustang Recognition Guide written by the editors of Mustang Monthly Magazine (Larry Dobbs, Donald Farr, Jerry Heasley and Rick Kopec)(copywrite date 1981). I consider this to be one of the better Mustang guides. On page 74 they devote quite a lot of space to describing the differences between the 65 and 66 rally pacs. They wrote "All, early style Rally-Pacs were painted camera case black, while the low-profile version used in all '66 Mustangs may be either black, or color keyed to the steering column." Just wanted to share this additional piece of information. I realize the reference book that I have quoted from is nearly 30 years old and newer more accurate information may have surfaced since its publication. But it seems to support the previous information that I found in the early brochures that I have. Again, I don't know if this really helps but wanted to pass the information along.<b></b><i></i>

I have a black low profile rally pac in my April 13th '65 Dearborn car that is black inside the pods and has a correct for period ink stamped date on the tach.

Guys, I think we can all agree that black low profile RPs were indeed made and available. I think they would look great with a standard interior car to match the instrument bezel and glove box. However, on a pony interior car, the camera case stands out too much and I feel it should be painted like the column. Can anybody document an original late low profile black camera case RP factory installed on a Pony interior car?

Edited by - 66gtk on 01/07/2010 14:45:40

"late low profile black camera case"? What exactly is "late"? Many Spring 65 Pony Interior cars, regardless of the interior color, had the black rally pac installed when the car was built and can be documented, but not sure what you are looking for when "late" is thrown in the question.

Edited by - Murf on 01/07/2010 16:21:30

By late, I mean all '66 cars and perhaps some of the late '65s that rolled out a few weeks past the introduction of the Pony interior.

My car is Black GT with a Black pony interior.Car is a 66 and was built nov 65 and has a Black low profile RP.

mike

Edited by - mcfly on 01/07/2010 17:27:56