K
Kit Sullivan
Guest
It seems lately that a lot of enthusiasts on this forum and many others have taken the attitude that cars from the 60s and 70s were built with poor attention to detail and poor quality control, and are using this assumption as the basis as to why thier particular car has some unexplained (or unknown to them) feature that doesn't fit in with what they assume are the standards used "back in the day".
The feeling that quality bcontrol was not an issue is not as true as some may think.
The Monroney act was still fresh in the minds of many (especially Ford) and it was very important that the product that was built, sold and delivered matched what they claimed they were selling to the customers.
To assume that something is a mistake due to carelessness or poor quality control on your car because you can't readily explain it any other way is an exercise in "bad science". To stste that something must be a "fact" based on anecdotal evidence and without any other input is a fallacy. Sounds like religion to me.
These cars are 40+ years old...whether you want to belive it or not, many things may have been changed or modified over the years without anyone realizing it.
Old owners sometimes forget changing things, cars are often "robbed" of desirable parts at a delaership and replaced with the lesser version of that part to make a car more sale-abale to a particular customer.
That 'robbed' car may then be sold to the first owner, who swears it "came from the factory" that way.
Family members sometimes change items on cars and others in the family may be unaware of it.
Over the years, I have herad all thse "facts" from supposedly knowledgable "experts":
all 71s came with chrome bumpers, all 72s had urathane. we know thats wrong.
There were mach 1 convertibles. Wrong again.
Magnums could be had on 73s...nope.
Front spoliers wee optional on Mach 1s. Never.
Windsors came in 71-73s. No again.
And many more.
Some things are just bound to remain a mystery...an assumption of fact is not a fact at all.
The feeling that quality bcontrol was not an issue is not as true as some may think.
The Monroney act was still fresh in the minds of many (especially Ford) and it was very important that the product that was built, sold and delivered matched what they claimed they were selling to the customers.
To assume that something is a mistake due to carelessness or poor quality control on your car because you can't readily explain it any other way is an exercise in "bad science". To stste that something must be a "fact" based on anecdotal evidence and without any other input is a fallacy. Sounds like religion to me.
These cars are 40+ years old...whether you want to belive it or not, many things may have been changed or modified over the years without anyone realizing it.
Old owners sometimes forget changing things, cars are often "robbed" of desirable parts at a delaership and replaced with the lesser version of that part to make a car more sale-abale to a particular customer.
That 'robbed' car may then be sold to the first owner, who swears it "came from the factory" that way.
Family members sometimes change items on cars and others in the family may be unaware of it.
Over the years, I have herad all thse "facts" from supposedly knowledgable "experts":
all 71s came with chrome bumpers, all 72s had urathane. we know thats wrong.
There were mach 1 convertibles. Wrong again.
Magnums could be had on 73s...nope.
Front spoliers wee optional on Mach 1s. Never.
Windsors came in 71-73s. No again.
And many more.
Some things are just bound to remain a mystery...an assumption of fact is not a fact at all.