great stuff, i thought i knew a fair amount about early production but i never heard or read about Pilot plant cars with an S in the vin.
Click on the link for some more interesting information about another Pilot Plant car: 5S07?100003.
Quote from RalphJrThe guy restoring my "K" 2+2 body & paint actually owns one of the 12 Worlds Fair cars - #6 I think. He found it in a salvage yard of all places.
Anyone else know about these cars?
They were prepped special as "show cars" - they even finished off the door and sill areas so the seams didn't show.
The October 2007 issue of MUSTANG TIMES has an in-depth story about these special Mustangs, along with very specific details concerning the focal point of the Ford Pavilion at the 1964-5 New York Word's Fair: The Magic Skyway.
This is one of the most interesting and well written articles published by this magazine in recent times...It mentions Mustang # 5F08F100006, one of the original 12 Mustangs used in the Magic Skyway, and that this car was discovered in a Georgia junkyard back in the 1970's in very poor condition. It is reported to be undergoing a complete restoration by the owner who is identified as Allan Shepley of Byron, Georgia.
Relisted...HERE. "Buy It Now" reduced to $55,000.00.
I'll definitely be there. Just hope the rain holds off. 17 K's would be amazing!
It better not rain! Make sure we get a FULL set of pictures of what should be an outstanding event...
Quote from kapdavmThis could be the only real K-code that didn't have the hipo emblem on the front fenders.
And one of the few '65 Mustangs with a '66 front grille...
Here ya go...
Quote from J_SpeegleThe 428CJ site might be a better place to ask the question
No doubt about that. 
Quote from CharlesTurnerThat's a lot of coin for a motor that cannot be verified as an actual K engine. Someone can buy heads, rods, main caps and a balancer for a whole lot less than $12k.
Charles is absolutely correct in my opinion. Even if all that is in the picture is K code correct 8100.00 is still high. From the looks of that engine it would have to be completely rebuilt and to do that right and make it factory correct you are going to have around 10,000.00 in cost for that. Maybe you could do the rebuild for a little less but when it is all said and done you will have between 15 and 18 K in an engine.
Gary
That's exactly why it didn't sell...
Quote from EngineerWhat kind of difference do you see between the engine build date and the build date of your kar?
1965 K Code Mustang
Engine assembly date: 5B15
Vehicle scheduled build date: 15B
Dealer invoice to customer date: March 31, 1965
OK...that tag is for a 1964 260 2V cubic inch V-8 with manual transmission. It is correct for Fairlanes, Comets, or Falcons (except the Falcon Sprints). Sort of "plain Jane" and ordinary, huh?
That's outstanding!
Quote from round2KIs that an early distributor with a cast iron water pump?
Sure looks like it...
Mustang serial number one. It was sold to Stanley Tucker of St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada on April 14, 1964. Original price: $3,334.
The irony of it is that Mustang Number One was released to the Ford of Canada district sales office, and it was supposed to be displayed at dozens of Canadian dealer's showrooms coast to coast, and then be returned to Ford...It was an accident that it was sold by an over eager salesman to airline pilot Captain Stanley Tucker. By special arrangement, he traded it back to Ford for the 1,000,001st Mustang on March 2, 1966.
Mustang Number One was returned to Ford after Tucker put on about 10,000 miles, and it was repainted and detailed before being used by Ford for promotion during the rest of 1966. After that, it was donated to the Henry Ford Museum, where it was placed in storage until 1984, when it was brought out for public display to commemorate the Mustang's 20th anniversary. After the fall of 1984, it went back in storage until 1988, when it finally went on permanent display...Even more information on Mustang #1 is HERE
Good answer and nice pic...
I agree. Couldn't help noticing the early tranasverse muffler with the resonators in front.
I was informed by the restorer that he heard the first 100 Mustangs were built torn apart and rebuilt as they were used as the prototypes to set up the production line.
There were aproximately 150 preproduction Mustangs built at the Dearborn Assembly Plant. As mentioned earlier, they were used mostly for advertising, executive "loaners", and promotion, while some were used for engineering changes, crash testing, and even racing. They were not made for sale to the public.
Before the "pre production" Mustangs were built at DAP, an unknown number of so-called Pilot Plant cars were built at Ford's Body and Assembly Division, located at Allen Park, near Dearborn. A Pilot Plant is a special, scaled down version of an assembly line used to
test out production techniques. Pilot Mustangs were built in small batches to work out assembly line problems before they developed at a full scale assembly plant. This process saved time and money by discovering and fixing assembly problems before they could cause costly shutdowns or slowdowns at the actual assembly plant. These cars were given special VIN's with an "S" code for the assembly plant.
Of interest here is one such Pilot Plant Mustang that has been documented. Identified as 5S08K100002, this convertible was scrapped and converted into a show car named Mustang III, and was leased from Dearborn Steel Tubing for use in Ford sponsored Rod and Custom shows in 1964 and 1965.
The seller lives close to me and we both work in the same local. He drove the kar in to work so that I could check it out...Do not believe he sold the kar.
Thanks for the information, Alex...keep us updated, if you can.
Quote from J_Speeglequote:It's worth considering that 289 HiPo production probably did not follow the typical timelines of standard 289's very closely. ...
Just to continue the conversation Why would the time line for block casting be any different since they are the same block?
To further clarify the point, this refers to all the specific castings needed to build the 289 High Performance engines such as heads, rods, exhaust manifolds, camshafts, distributors, etc., and NOT the blocks in particular. It's safe to assume there was a good supply of 289 blocks available at any given time, although by 1966, there was so much demand that Cleveland production could not keep up with requirements for small block engines, and the Windsor Plant was pressed into service to increase capacity.
Are the wheels 65 or 66 style?
Quote from J_Speegle"Assembly date code is definatley 5J3. So the block sat around for a couple of months before being assembled - is that unusual?"
Not really for a 289...
It's worth considering that 289 HiPo production probably did not follow the typical timelines of standard 289's very closely. We know that the HiPo engines accounted for an extremely low number compared to all other 289's made. (It's likely that it's less than 2 percent of all 289's built.) The production priority clearly wouldn't be to cast and build HiPo specific parts with the same frequency (date codes) as the standard parts. For example, there were probably only certain days out of a month that HiPo heads were cast. Likewise, the machining might have been done in batches, and at specific times, vs nearly continuous, non stop production of the standard small block heads.
These manufacturing logistics could account for brief periods of shortages regarding all the necessary HiPo-specific parts needed to assemble these engines. Remember, dealer orders for Mustangs were constantly arriving at Dearborn via Telex. No one knew at any point in time how many K code Mustangs (or Fairlanes) would be ordered in advance. I'm sure this made it somewhat of a challenge for the planners to have HiPo production as efficient as it was for the standard 289.
That whole engine looks kinda wierd. Check out the breather/filler cap at the rear of the blue left side valve cover. The alternator has a standard size pulley. The water pump appears to be aluminum. The carburetor looks as though there is an automatic choke and a dashpot on it. Any bets the internals are a mis match of who knows what?
