My 74 standard 2 door [not a grabber] was built in St Thomas, Canada, and came with a body color engine bay, but it's black now, having being painted some time in it's lifetime. Wonder if the Canada built cars were different to the US built ones in any ways? Any odd little differences that were only on the Canada built cars?
My observations up to this point: My '69.5 was built at the St. Thomas plant (1X91T) and has a black engine bay that is obviously factory. My '72 2 door NON Grabber Kansas City (2K91T) built car has a body color engine bay that is obviously factory. My brother's '72 Grabber Kansas City built car (2K93F) appears to have had a body color engine bay, which has been painted over at some point. My '73 4 door St. Thomas built car (3X92L) has a body color engine bay. My '73 2 door St. Thomas built car (3X91L) has a body color engine bay. My '74 Grabber is a Wayne, Michigan built car (4W93L), and had a body colored engine bay. I have seen three other other Wayne built 74's, including the one Dan Hines used to have that now belongs to Rick Book, all of them had body colored engine bays from the factory. I have two '76 parts cars that were literally IDENTICAL in every way when they were new, both built at Kansas City (6K91L) and both have body color engine bays. I have taken parts off a Kansas City built '72 Sprint in the junkyard. It had a factory body colored engine bay. I have taken parts off a '72 Detroit built car in the junkyard (2F91L) it had a body colored engine bay. I have closely looked at a low mileage '73 Detroit built car (2F91T), it had a body colored engine bay. I have taken parts off many more cars including Comet's, they follow those same lines. I have never seen a '72 and up car with a black engine bay from the factory. I have never seen a Wayne or Detroit built Comet, so couldn't speak for those, if they exist. If anyone here claims to have one, let's see it.
Thanks For the info, My car is 3F91F build date 10/72 , do you remember the color of the to Detroit cars and what is the build date on them? Also It is very interesting that the 2 Detroits are 6 cylinder cars (not that it means anything) but it is a difference. Before we discount this as ramdom factory goofs lets make sure there is no common connections. I'll have to go back into some older forum and dig up some more users that say they have a factory black compartment, so far Acornridgeman 1972 Grabber Dearborn car and Ronald Hopkins 1972 comet both are welcomed to chime in. Below is a picture of my engine compartment and I did do some touch paint up to it, the hood hinges,engine braces and shock caps I had glass beaded and painted they were rusted when I got the car, also I lightly sprayed black paint with engine in place to make the engine compartment look a little better. With that said I can assure you there is no other color under the black I sprayed but black, the oringinal yellow red decal is still on the shock tower from the factory and if you lift up the one loose corner of the sticker it is black under it.
I have somewhere the books from St.Thomas, and in the year to year changes, it lists that the engine compartments would stay body color (cost savings, that why), I thinks it's the 72 model change over, but I've had to clean up all my stuff and put it away for Christmas at our place this year. My 74 is white with a white engine compartment, St. Thomas car. My 73 is green with a green engine compartment, Kansas car, Built 9/29/72. "6473rd off the line" I'm sure this has been discussed many many times, anyone do a search? As for differences between St.Thomas and Kansas cars, the only thing I've seen is how the tail light panel is masked off on Grabbers.
I,ve been busy at work for the past month and finally got a chance to play on the computer today and found this 72 Dearborn made comet Gt with a factory black engine compartment. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...STRK:MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=130192444141&rd=1
My '72 Comet has a black engine bay,and the '70 Mav I sold had a black bay..Every other Mav/Com I've had/have has a body colored engine bay.
This question about engine bay color has been discussed b4. My research has found that kansas, ST Thomas built cars were body color in the engine bay and my 72 dearborn car was satin black from the factory. When i purchased my car from NM, I asked the seller if he painted the engine bay and said that he had not painted it and it was blk when he got it from the original owner. I have the orig build sheet and if some1 tells me where to look ,I will see what it says. Hope this helps. RON
Thats cool, I'm assuming that the comet is a Dearborn car is that correct? also could you let me know the build date and the color of the interior of your Comet? Thanks...
The build date and the color of your interior would help me figure this out, the build date is on the blue sticker located near the Drivers side door latch post. As far as the build sheet goes I can't see any specific codes for a black engine compartment, so far it looks like they got painted black because they came down the line with Mustang and cougars which would make sense.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ford...007QQitemZ170215059291QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW Here is a 73 Dearborn with a black compartment, the compartment was touched up with spraypaint but if you look at the chips missing under the engine decal its black (someone damaged the bottomm right corner of the decal with a bolt?) the vin# is alot higher then what my car is, its 3f91f180451 my car 3f91F135***, It would be nice to get a picture of a Maverick on a dearborn Assembly line. [/ATTACH]
