More ??'s deciphering of Mav Tag

Sorry, I have three Mavericks that I am working on simultaneously, those are from two different cars.

 

That is a very low VIN on the 69 1/2

I would guess the UP and LO is for 2 toned cars, if not 2 toned it lists the body color in the LO row.

 

I believe Allan is correct about the UP and LO.

I "think" the 45 is for the size of the battery? All 1970 Grabbers have this 45 on the body buck tag.

D is for Bright Yellow....also called Bright Last Stand Custard. One could also call it Grabber Yellow....but really there are only 3 Grabber colors: Grabber Blue, Grabber Orange, and Grabber Green.


Very low VIN number on the 69 1/2. Could well be one of the first...if not THE first Maverick ever made.

 

I wonder if Marti could check what the first 8 cars were to see if that was the first Maverick ever made?

 

Hope I'm not hijacking. Need my body tag read.

0800__17_____04j_J
U196782___62A_____RQM___45

INTER
F___DK__AQUA__A___BLK vin is fOX91U196782f

Car has the dash ign. switch, drivers door must of been replaced at one time. Door has a sticker and no metal tag. Sticker was painted over.

Thanks for any help, Dave Stuckey in Pgh Pa

 

I will do a Marti report on it sometime and let everyone know. That is one reason that I want to know what the transportation services DSO means. The guy I bought it from had said it was part of a Doug Nash racing team but I don't know if I believed him or not. In the Richard Mason paint book that was supplied to body shops in those years, it lists D as Grabber Yellow.

 

Being that Sarah's car is a 1969 1/2 means it was built in March or April of 1969. All the other cars in the assembly plant being built would have been 1969's. All the Mavericks would have been 1970's. I think that this would mean that Sarah's car was the 9th Maverick built if we follow that logic.

It could be that the transportation services means that:

- Your car, being one of the first Mavericks ever built, was destined for an auto show, a tv commercial, etc

- Your car was meant to be a drag car as you suspected, and this car was sent to transportation services to later be delivered to a drag shop.

 

Not sure is any crash testing happened back then, if so it would have consumed a few cars.
I am sure that Ford was eager to get these cars into the Drag Racers hands for NHRA Pro Stock Racing.

 

Okay, so the Marti report on the low VIN 69.5:

Order Type:local promotion
Dealer:FMC Labor Relations Staff, Room 67 C O B, Dearborn, MI, 48121
Serialized 3/3/69, bucked 3/12/69, scheduled for build 3/1/69, built 3/14/69, released 6/30/69, sold 6/30/69
It was a basic car: c-4 cruise-o-matic, 6.45 x 14 tires, white sidewalls, base accent group, am radio and inside day-night mirror

Does FMC Labor Relations Staff mean anything to anybody?
And someone please define release date for me. On my 70 Grabber, the report lists the release date on 4/17/70, 4 days before it was actually built, but on my 69.5, it was after the built date.
Thanks.

 

Ford Motor Company Relations Staff,, your car probably went to somebody who was either press related, or Ford company involved. Most likely a high ranking press relation, car was probably used in a mag article? You could have a famous car on your hands.
Or coulda been a promo car,, anyways, sounds like you found something worth keeping for sure, now the hard part of researching its past.
pretty cool
Dan

 

Wow .. built in March of 1969? That thing must have been used for all kinds of Publicity and Advertising photos and displays prior to the actual release of the car. Possibly also used at Auto shows to display the upcoming models ... Cool ...

 

At the St.Thomas plant, they used to build and paint the bodys and store them in "the tower" looks like a big apartment building sticking out of the factory, I have a picture somwhere and you can see all the different colored Mavericks.
So it is possible for the car to be bucked before it gets it's serial number, I also have a list of all the release dates, and what show cars where shipped where, most started shipping 3-15-68, I don't see anything for "Labour Relations" but 7 went to "Ford Division" on 4-7-69, and their listed as standby units.

 

The 2 Dans are now chomping at the possibilities bit on the history of this car!!!!

 

It's exciting thats it's such a low #, I have a list of serial numbers somewhere...
3/3/69 was the day they started filling the line with Mav's in St.Thomas, 3/17/69 was Job 1

 

Do you think the car was used by Ford from 3/14/69 till 6/30/69?

Maybe it was the Brochure car
http://cgi.ebay.com/1969-70-Ford-Maverick-Original-Sales-Brochure-Rare_W0QQitemZ6632066416QQihZ012QQcategoryZ86949QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem